Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1887-07-22
lally grass md 9akotaias
H0FF MANS DOOM.
He reaches the End OF His
u flo alt tho End IF a
Rops.
Story Of The Deed as Told by ihe
Men---A Sisters Love Avaiis MOI
Pleading for the Sooun-
drel's Mack.

OMAHA, Neb. July 2l.--The crime for
which David Hoffman will be banged
Friday, July 90, at Nebraska City, was
committed on the night Of January 10,
1887. Hoffman in company with James
Bell wrecked the sonthbonnd Missouri
Pacific passenger train neal Dunbar,
Nebraska, causing the death of Enginee.
]. y. Dewitt, seriously injuring Express
Messenger Cheuowfth, and slightly In
juring several passengers. The two train
wreckers were trailed through the snow
and easily arrested a few hours after the
train was ditched. At the ~coroner's in.
quest the next day the evidence showed
that the two men had walked from the
Burlington and Missouri tool, house in
the direction Of the wreck, and after the
train had been derailed, they cut across
a field on their old track to the house of
John Hoffman, about two hundred Yards
north of the track. Mrs. Hoffman testi-
fled that she saw the accused parties
come through thesc corn field, and talked
with them on their arrival. When they
arrived she informed theTa of the wreck,
and was told by thcm that they knew it.
and both left Immediately for the scene.
John Hoffman testified that he saw a
man run away from the scene, and that
this man looked very much like his
brother. The stories told by the prison.
ers we're conflicting. They were held for
trial, and at once removed to- the Nebraska
City jail to avoid being lynched. Dave
Hoffman was q Farmland. and had been
working for his sethsr-in las, north Of
Unaailla during the fall and winter, ana
had come down to Dunbar to visit his
brother, He met James Bell at Dunbar.
Bell was .sRasrsnteEs and lived on n5farm
three miles north OF Unadilla He had
been on a spree at Dunbar for a day or
" Hoffman and Bell left town about
ten o'cloek at night, and that was the
last seen of them until after the wreck.
Hoffman had formerly been ia brakeman
on the Chicago, Burlington e. Quincy road
and knew how TO fix the track to wreck
q train. The tools with which it was
done were stolen from the burlington
tool house.
A night or two after their incarceration
III the Nebraska City jail a mob from
and vicinity entered Nebraska
City with the intention of lynching Hoff-
man n Bell, together with Quin Bob
annan, a condemned murderer, who has
since InysteriouslY escaped, and Lee
S~chellenberger, under arrest for the
murder OF his little and since
convicted, but the mob was foiled In its
purpose owing to the vigilance. of the off,
GERS and a lack of organization and lead.
ship This mob demonstration occurred
immediately after Hoffman and Bell
were taken by the officers to the Grand
fyopfrsnI Il brfnI Syx hfny,o.c H. CstL.F II .L-'
they were closely interrogated by Mis-
souri, Pacific detectives who finally sue
ceeded in securing q confession from each
Of them, 1t was the fact of this confess
sioa becoming known that drew the mob
together, 1t appears that Hoffman
and Fell were both broke and committed
the crime with the intention of robbing
the express car. They had been both
bounced out OF q saloon at Decatur.
Hoffman in his confession said. when
Bell and / were thrown out of The gin
mill we were pretty full and Bell told
me that II we hid ill the m~oneythat was
on the train that was coming along we
would go to Europe and live like q king.
Then he said to nue. that ii / would help
him we could get the money and both 60
over TO Europe and go on a hell of Il
spree, / asked him how we could get 1t
and ne said that il we would put a log.
on the track and fasten 1t we could smash
tue train and get the money. i told him
J. wouldn't put q log on the track and
then he said Then we can get d crowbar
u break away a rail- Bell then went
on to state how tle:traffi was wrecked,
10 was done with q crowhar and wrench.
Bell also confessed, corroborating Hoff-
mans statement, with the exception that
Hoffman i%nstigatrd the plot and induced
him to enter into il. Even while work
ing on the fish plates, Bell claims that he
suggested to Hoffman to quit, but Hoff-
man refused, and threatened hint he
stopped.
Hoffman's trial took place In April.
Bell turned States evidence. The Jury
returned a verdict of guilty of murder in
the first degree litter being ont only
thirty minutes. Bell got off with a SEN
tence of ten years. He barely escaped
1yrching after the trial, by being hurried
off to the penftentiary.
Holman parents reside in Decatur
county, Kansas. He has four brothers
and sisters living. One sister, Mrs.
Matte Fetch, OF Emwood, Nebraska.
made q strong appeal by petition and
otherwise to the governor 10 have the
sentence commnted to life Imprisonment.
Aside from this sister, no other relative
apparently cared anything about his fate.
He is "a carsso4d. This is the first In
stance OF a train wrecker suffering the
death penalty.
About FIVE years ago Hoffman was in
the cattle stealing business near Ayr,
Nebraska, in the Republican valley, and
is credited with being one OF a gang who
drove off an entire herd for which q mob
lynched an old man named Weathesdike